A JOURNEY TO NATURE 



the stranger had flapped in at the open window 

 where the netting was torn and was making all 

 this disturbance because he did not know enough 

 to flap out again, I got up and tried to assist him. 

 He fought me bill and claw and knocked down 

 the photograph that was tacked over the table. 

 Getting tired of it, I went back to bed. When 

 I woke up in the morning, there he sat on the 

 sill against the lower half of the closed sash, 

 rather weak and dishevelled from overexertion, 

 and looking reproachfully at me as if I had been 

 the cause of it all ; whereupon I made up my 

 mind it was a female bird, and having caught it, 

 I brought it to the open sash to let it sail away, 

 for which act of mercy it nipped me viciously in 

 the thumb.&quot; 



As I was looking after it, I saw Griselle com 

 ing over the hill like well, like a stave of Mil 

 ton s L Allegro reciting itself. 



But when Charlie got up, the first thing he 

 said was, &quot;Why, somebody s knocked down 

 mother s picture.&quot; 



